No. What you are looking at above is not yet one more photo of the Mount Rainier volcano suffering a meltdown due to the current record breaking heatwaves scorching the Pacific Northwest. The above photo was taken August 15, 2017, heading south to Phoenix from Seattle.
Western Washington was in drought mode when I was there the summer of 2017. Not as extreme as the current drought, but the Evergreen State was not looking its normal shade of green during that visit.
On August 10, 2021, almost exactly four years after I took the above photo of Mount Rainier, sister Jackie took the below photo of Mount Rainier, as she flew by on her way to Seattle from Phoenix. I blogged about this in Flying Over Naked Mount Rainier With Sister Jackie
The two photos do not seem to be from the exact same vantage point, but close. And the Mountain does look a bit more naked in the 2021 version than the 2017 version.
I had forgotten I had taken these photos of Mount Rainier, back in 2017. Suffice to say I had a lot going on at that point in time, so some things got forgotten. Such as these photos. Two samples of such below.
I remember being surprised at how close the pilot was flying by the Mountain.
I did not see any mountain climbers making their way to the summit. Maybe mid August is not the right time of year for that treacherous activity.
In the same folder of photos taken whilst flying south to Phoenix I came upon the one you see below...
That is Hoover Dam you see above, blocking the flow of the Colorado River, creating Lake Mead. And that's the new Tillman Bridge, crossing the Colorado from Nevada to Arizona, you see in front of the dam.
I have not been to Hoover Dam since the bridge was built. I like the old way of crossing, switchbacks til you reached the dam, then driving across to park on the Arizona side, before walking across the dam. I don't know if doing such is still allowed. I suspect not.
I have not been to Hoover Dam since late in the previous century when my Favorite Jason and Joey Nephews took me to Vegas.
Las Vegas. If I remember right I've only been to Vegas one time this century. And that was in the middle of winter, and it was raining. I do not remember that as a fun visit to Vegas.
I do remember the Vegas stop was part of a roadtrip which began in Haslet, Texas, driving back to Washington, with staying at the Luxor in Vegas happening on the way back to Texas, with the return route including driving over Hoover Dam.
I remember the drive through the Phoenix metro zone seeming to take forever, finally overnighting in Casa Grande. At that point in time I would never have guessed that a few years later I would become quite familiar with the entire Phoenix area...
